Now you can fingerprint unlock phone using just the screen, for real

App stores are filled with joke apps that pretend to read your fingerprint as you touch the screen, but they're now old news as the real thing has arrived. A new screen can read fingerprints through the glass.

LG Innotek has shown off the new glass panel that will make secure phone unlocking even simpler. The company also points out this can make a phone look more sleek and should help waterproofing become even simpler.

The fingerprint sensor was placed inside a 0.3mm cut in the lower backside of the glass cover, says LG Innotek. This glass is resistant to water damage and scratches while offering a high recognition accuracy. It has a false sensitivity rate of 0.0002 per cent, for those who are interested.

LG expects fingerprint recognition to become more and more popular as the mobile payment market grows. This screen will be an interesting development that could appeal to manufacturers. It will have to work better than current fingerprint reading tech if LG wants it to appeal to potential customers.

When this tech will appear is unclear. Since this can’t conceivably be added as a module on the LG G5 we'd expect it to appear in a future smartphone from the company instead.